1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roof weather strip for a convertible car having a sliding roof which can be folded and retracted inside a car body and, more particularly, to a roof weather strip which seals a gap between a side edge of the sliding roof and a fully closed door glass.
2. Description of Related Art
A convertible car has a sliding roof which can be folded and retracted inside a car body. When the sliding roof is unfolded and slid to close a roof opening of the convertible car, a gap between a side edge of the sliding roof and a fully closed door glass must be sealed. To this end, a roof weather strip is attached to a roof-side frame which is provided along the side edge of the sliding roof. Since the roof-side frame is foldable, similarly to the sliding roof, the roof weather strip is divided into weather strip pieces corresponding to the folding of the roof-side frame (see publication of Japanese Utility model application No. Hei 7-24614, FIG. 1, ex.).
FIG. 1 shows an appearance of a convertible car, and FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a conventional roof weather strip for a convertible car. As shown, a roof weather strip 10 has a door glass-sealing portion 12 for sealing a door glass 14, and a sliding roof-sealing portion 16 for sealing a sliding roof 18. The door glass-sealing portion 12 and the sliding roof-sealing portion 16 are formed separately from each other.
The door glass-sealing portion 12 has a tubular cross-section. A seal wall thereof contacts a peripheral edge of the door glass 14 to seal the same. A base part 23 of the door glass-sealing portion 12 is fitted in a retainer 20 mounted on a roof-side frame 22.
A base part 24 of the sliding roof-sealing portion 16 is secured to the roof-side frame 22, and a sliding roof-sealing lip 26 thereof contacts an inside face of a side edge of the sliding roof 18 to seal the same (see unexamined publication of Japanese Patent application No. Hei 11-129766, pages 3 to 4, and FIG. 1, ex.).
A roof top 28 of the sliding roof 18 is flexible so that a gap between the flexible roof top 28 and the roof-side frame 22 may vary, and accordingly, the seal between the side edge of the sliding roof 18 and the sliding roof-sealing lip 26 may become insufficient. To overcome this problem, and ensure the seal between the sliding roof 18 and the roof weather strip 10, it has been tried to form a double seal by providing two parallel sliding roof-sealing lips 26.
The roof weather strip 10 is composed of a plurality of weather strip pieces corresponding to the folding of the roof top 28 and roof-side frame 22. When the sliding roof 18 is unfolded to cover a roof opening of the vehicle body, facing end faces of adjacent weather strip pieces contact each other to define a continuously extending roof weather strip 10 for sealing the side edge of the sliding roof 18. To ensure the seal between the facing end faces of the adjacent weather strip pieces, they must closely contact each other without creating any gap therebetween.
The sliding roof-sealing lip 26 has a plate-shaped configuration with a tapered cross-section of which a tip end is thin, and is composed of rubber, thermoplastic elastomer, or the like, each exhibiting flexibility. Accordingly, it is difficult to bring facing end faces of the sliding roof-sealing lips 26 of adjacent weather strip pieces into close contact with each other. Where the facing end faces of the sliding roof-sealing lips 26 do not closely contact each other, but offset from each other, a desired good seal may not be effected therebetween.